


Day Off

by winterhats



Series: The Wonderful Today [3]
Category: Kagerou Project, Mekakucity Actors
Genre: Aged-Up Character(s), Awakening eyes is Harutaka kid, F/M, Family, Family Feels, Gen, Next-Gen, Reincarnation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-11-08
Updated: 2020-11-08
Packaged: 2021-03-09 04:22:37
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 13,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27448570
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/winterhats/pseuds/winterhats
Summary: Maybe it’s the fact it’s a week day and at this time everyone is at work or at school, so everything’s especially quiet, but something about it felt so nicely magical.As if Konoha and Shion were in their own little world, separated from the rest.(Next gen fic. Haruka and Takane's son and Seto and Mary's daughter take a day off school).
Relationships: Enomoto Takane | Ene/Kokonose Haruka | Konoha, Kozakura Marry/Seto Kousuke, Original Female Character & Kozakura Mary, Original Male Character & Original Female Character
Series: The Wonderful Today [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1404253
Comments: 3
Kudos: 7





	Day Off

**Author's Note:**

> I'm nervous about this fic. I hope it won't be boring...!
> 
> By the way, it could be a stand alone fic, but it'd be best to read my other fic "Retrace" first.

Konoha wouldn't say he's patient. It's more like waiting makes him bored and he ends up getting lost in thought.

His head fills the void of waiting by letting his mind derail. Wondering what's gonna be for dinner, thinking about ladybugs, and just generally really cool stuff like that.

Shion stops pacing around in his room and turns to look at him in a calm swift. She was still wearing that satisfied smile, like she's the smartest person in the world (which, in Konoha's opinion, she is) and she gives a clap, as she knows he's one to get so lost in thought he can't even hear people are talking to him.

Fortunately, he wasn't at that point yet, so he responds rather quickly, "Done brainstorming, Shion?"

"Exactly, my dear friend," Shion doesn't stop the "huhuhu" snickering she had going on, walking over to her school bag to look for something. Konoha raises his eyebrows when she takes out probably her most precious thing in the world,

"Whatcha need your diary for?"

Shion clutches the notebook on her hands, her face heating up, "I told you! It's not a diary, it's a _journal!"_

“Ah, right. Journal,” Konoha nods obediently. He thinks a notebook you write on and that is private is a diary, but Shion always insists otherwise. He suspects she’s just embarrassed about the prospect of a diary and calls it a journal because it sounds cooler, but who’s to say.

The notepad in question was a gift Konoha had made her last year; the pages were lineless and the paper was recycled, so they had a brownish look. Just like Shion loves it!

He loves that she's using his gift as her diary (whoops, journal), as he knows that means she's giving it a lot of use. On her part, Shion went through its pages with speed, evidently looking for something,

"So," she starts, once she seems to find it. "The year's almost over, correct?"

Konoha gets in a serious mood because he realizes Shion's in plan mode, so he makes sure to respond accordingly, "Correct, commander Seto."

"Just say Shion."

"Okay, Shion."

"No, _commander_ Shion."

"Alright, commander Shion."

"Right, co-commander Konoha," Shion smiles. "So, the year's almost over. Which means... we need to make sure this year's missions were all accomplished. You know, before moving on to write the new missions."

By missions, of course, she means new year's resolutions. She was just embarrassed to say "resolutions". Yeah, sort of like with the diary and journal thing... she's weird about words sometimes, but Konoha thinks it’s cool.

He enjoys writing resolutions, they're fun, but he's not very good at keeping up with them. Shion, on the other hand, respects hers like her life depends on it. She's very into the idea of achieving personal goals, and she's always keeping track of them. Also, her resolutions are always really cool, he thinks.

"So, is there anything on yours you haven't done?"

Konoha looks up at the ceiling of his room, humming. Where did he put it...?

He gets up and starts rummaging around in his room, Shion waiting patiently in the spot she stood. Maybe in the chest that has all his old toys? Hm, no. His school bag? Nah. His desk drawer?

His desk drawer!

Konoha moves around the wrappers he had hidden there on a snack run the other night and takes out a notepad before going back to his bed. He opens it to check on it; most of it were collaboration doodles with Shion, some of her handwriting, and some of his own doodles.

He's not as artistically gifted as his dad, but Konoha does enjoy scribbling from time to time. He wouldn't call it a hobbie, it was more of a thing he did when he was bored in class or while he did homework.

"Look at this one, this is a drawing of my dad being happy I adopted a beetle, and there's me with the beetle," Konoha looks at his own art proudly before showing it to Shion, pointing at each thing he narrated on the page. "I know it'll never happen because my dad hates bugs but I can dream."

"Beautiful, I like the detail in the beetle a lot," Shion nods at it, putting a hand in her chin to look like an art critic. Konoha smiles. "Where's your mission list, anyway?"

"It must be here," he looks back at it to continue flipping pages. It wasn't a very full book, so he finds it a few pages later. "Oh, yay! Hmm, I haven't been keeping up with it so let's see what I've accomplished!"

"Read it to me, soldier!" Shion starts pacing again, voice full of excitement.

"Yes, ma'am. Hmmm, okay, so..." Konoha begins reading. "Having ice cream with mommy. Done! Asking dad to make pancakes for breakfast, also done! Going biking with Shion, done–"

He gets interrupted by a soft sigh from his friend. Shion’s apparent high spirits deflate as she tiredly pronounces his name, "Konoha.”

“Yes, commander Shion?”

“Are all your missions simple things you probably already did a thousand times this year?”

He looks over at the rest of the list and nods, "Yes. Pretty much."

"Konohaaa!" she stomps her foot on the floor. "You're supposed to write _fun_ stuff that is _mildly_ difficult to achieve! Like, like, adopting a beetle. You want one so bad!"

Konoha blinks at her, "Well, yeah, but why would I add something impossible as a resolution?"

"Mission, not resolution!" she corrects. "And because, that's the point! Like, you _cooould_ get a pet beetle..."

"But my dad would lose his mind?"

" _...Without_ letting your dad know."

"Shion!" he gasps. "That's not right! He's my dad!"

"Well, it's just an example!" she laughs, looking at her notebook again. "The point is to meet your goals, whatever it takes. For example, my latest one: get revenge on someone.”

“My dad always says revenge isn’t good,” Konoha shakes his head. “You need to be the bigger person and forgive.”

“My parents say the same,” Shion says, but she was rolling her eyes. “It’s bullcrap. Revenge serves a point. Remember a few months ago, after summer break, when one of our classmates opened her pencil case and there was a _huge_ dead cicada in it?”

“Ohh, yeah. Poor little cicada,” Konoha pouted. “Poor Tanaka-san, too. She was so surprised she started crying and her parents had to pick her up.”

Shion chuckled, “Yes.”

There’s a small pause, in which Konoha simply stares at her smirk with his head completely in blank. But then he connects the dots in the conversation, "Oh my god! Shion, you put the cicada in her pencil case!?”

“It was the first week of school and she tormeted me through it all!” Shion furrows her brows, her features getting taken over by anger. “That’s what she gets for always sticking stuff in my braid and stealing my clothes when we have swimming class!”

Konoha can only pout again, looking away in guilt. It’s not like it’s his fault, so it was silly to feel guilty. But it really made him feel helpless not being able to help Shion when their classmates bother her that much.

Shion seems to notice his dejection, because her voice quickly takes a reassuring tone, “Don’t be upset, Konoha. It doesn’t hurt me.”

“Still,” he sighs. “I wish I could do something to make them stop.”

“I can take care of myself,” she crosses her arms, face full of pride. “But if it makes you feel better, take a guess on who helped me catch that huge cicada.”

“Uhh,” Konoha looks up. “Hana?”

Hana is Shion’s little sister, so he thought that was a good guess. However, Shion rolls her eyes, “No, silly. You.”

“Oh!” he smiles for a second, before he realized what it meant. Oh. He helped her catch the cicada in summer and then it died and she put it in their classmate’s pencil case. That’s... uh, well, he doesn’t know how to feel about it. But Shion seemed eager to move on from the topic to get onto what she wanted to say on the first place, so he just doesn’t say anything more than, “I’m glad?”

“Sure you are!” Shion happily answers. “Anyway, that was the last mission of mine I accomplished. Getting revenge!”

"Oh... I thought resolutions were supposed to be things like, I don't know, losing weight?"

"If that were the case then you aren't doing it right, either. Also they're missions!" she sighs. "Anyway, if all of yours are done, then you'll help me do my last one, right?"

Ah, she’s only got one left? That’s so exciting! Like she said, the year’s almost over, so the fact she calculated the amount of resolutions she had to last the entire year was really admirable. Not to mention that this being the last one probably made it very special and maybe extra difficult, which meant...

Adventure!

He feels his face brighten up, nodding immediately, “Well, of course I’ll help, Shion!”

There's really nothing better than to help a friend achieve their goals, especially if that friend is a person like Shion. This whole thing already screamed adventure, so Konoha couldn’t wait to hear what it was about, except– except, as she smiles at him, Konoha sensed she was up to no good.

"Great. Check it out, then."

His friend turns her notepad to him, showing him the page with her resolutions.

Shion has a very neat handwriting, which could be suprising for most given how messy she is with most things. Konoha knows that comes from Shion’s dedication to writing and also auntie Mary’s influence.

Shion’s mom, his auntie Mary, had a thing for making Shion and her little sister Hana practice stuff outside of school; stuff such as calligraphy. Konoha had attended those home classes a few times growing up. Auntie Mary’s voice is soothing and she’s very patient when it comes to those little classes.

However, Shion herself has stopped attending them a few years ago because she argued it was unnecessary extra work. She keeps telling Konoha that her mom does this because Shion's grandmother (also named Shion, hehe, Konoha thinks it's sweet) used to homeschool auntie Mary, and so she wanted to be like her own mom and teach her own daughters. But since she also doesn't want to take them away from the experience of going to school, she kind of tried to balance both.

Which, in Shion's words, "is annoying as hell."

Coming back to the list though, every single mission was crossed out, except for a small one positioned around the middle of them all. In it, it said...

"Skipping school!?" Konoha exclaims, and Shion immediately shushes him.

"Keep your voice down! Your parents could hear you, you know!?" she takes the notebook away again, shoving it back into her school bag. "And you know whatever your parents hear, _my_ parents will hear!"

Oh, that was true. More than once, Shion's mischievious plans were stopped (or delayed) because Konoha couldn't keep his mouth shut and spilled it to his parents, who in return spilled it to her parents. He guesses that's why Shion thinks that their parents being friends is super annoying, but Konoha insists that if it weren't for that maybe they wouldn't even know each other and that's no good. Shion's always silent when he makes that point.

"So – sorry..." and so Konoha lowers his voice for his next words, "But... skipping school, Shion? Are you sure? Isn't that a little too difficult to pull off...? And just... too much in general?”

"Why? Not really~" Shion chirps, plumping on his bed next to him and rolling to lay down properly. He's still sitting, so he turns around and sits crisscrossed to be able to still look at her. "We'll just do the same as everyday, except we don't actually go to school."

"Still, it's..." he starts, but quickly cuts himself off when he processes her statement properly. "Wait, _we?"_

"Well, of course," Shion raises an eyebrow, and at his shock, her cheerful demeanor is gone, leaving behind a pout. She sits up, "You don't wanna come with?"

"It's not that I don't wanna come with, it's that just... skipping school..." he winces, making a sound as if he had gotten hurt. Shion frowns,

"It's alright, I'm not gonna force you or anything," looking away, she tries to pretend the answer didn’t upset her despite it clearly did. Shion tucks her legs to sit crisscrossed too, fiddling with the hem of her skirt. "I just thought it'd be fun to do it together.”

Konoha looks down, feeling slightly guilty. He’s flattered she included him in her plan like that, and of course he always has fun with her, and _of course_ he’s sad he’s disappointing her... but...

It’s just too much. He sighs, "Listen, I'd love to, it's just... I don't think my parents are going to agree with it, that's all."

Shion bursts into laughter, and he smiles in confusion at the sight of it, not quite understanding what's so funny.

"Konoha! Konoha, my friend, you weren't planning on letting your parents _know,_ right?! Why do you think I shushed you earlier!" she laughs, and Konoha looks up because, ah, that does make sense. "Of course they're not gonna be on board! Ya think my mom would let me skip school like it's no big deal?"

Konoha imagines auntie Mary's scary face when she gets angry, and shakes his head, "Yeah, no..."

"Exactly."

"Well, then how are you planning to do it?" he keeps asking things despite he felt nervous even knowing about this. "Even if we both pretended to be sick, it's not like we could hang out. Well, we could play online, but we do that all the time. I don't see why we need to skip school to do it."

"Konoha. Give me a break. You can only be so clueless," Shion lays back down on the pillow, tucking her hands under her head. "It'd go like this: we get up like everyday, we have breakfast like everyday, we meet at the same place we meet everyday, and _then,_ instead of walking to school we just... don't. We go somewhere else. We play around all day until it's time to come home and our parents will never even know."

Oh dear.

Konoha gulps, trying with, "Won't the school call our parents though? When they see we're not there?"

"We'll just ask Mai to tell the tutor we're sick."

"B– both of us sick at the same time though...? Isn't that a bit suspicious?"

She... she had really thought about this, huh? Even dragging their fellow classmate and friend Mai into it...

"Well, we permanently hang out around each other. What if I was sick right now, hm?" Shion jerks forward and jumpscares him with, "ACHOO! Like that! Huh? Boom, both of us wake up sick."

Yeah, that made sense. Honestly, it's happened before. Shion laid back, comfortably. Konoha looks away, "Sh – Shion, that's– I don't know what to say."

"As I said," she closes her eyes, indifference sulking on her face. Konoha knew she was making the effort to do that though, "I'm not gonna force you. If you wanna come with then great, if you don't that's okay too... but I'll do it anyway."

It all felt so organized. She had an answer to everything. But he was still unsure... the idea left a nervous feeling in his stomach.

He knew she was okay with him not wanting to go, but he was conflicted. Of course he wants to go along. Shion's the most fun person in the world, and the plan sounds like...

Well, an adventure. Konoha loves going on adventures, and the best kind of adventures are the ones Shion organizes.

But on the other hand... lying to Mai... lying to the school... lying to her parents... lying to _his_ parents... Konoha sighs.

"Isn't there any way we can do this without lying?"

"No," Shion says immediately. "As I told you, you don't need to come if you don't wanna, but if you tell your parents what I'm planning to do I'll literally never tell you a secret again!"

He gasps. That is probably the most horrifying thing he’s ever been threatened with. He thinks it may even defeat the time his mommy told him to stop bringing bugs inside the house or else she’s going to take away his bubble blower.

Konoha nods quickly, "Y – yeah, yeah I won't...!"

"Besides, it's not even lying!" she rolls her eyes. "Sure, we'll be telling Mai a little lie, but I'm guessing you're mostly concerned about our parents. Listen, you don't have to say anything. Act the same way you do everyday. You're just hiding a little something, so technically it’s not lying.”

Nodding along her words, Konoha continues to look down, uncertainty taking over his mind.

Well... it's true his mommy always says it's okay to be a little mischievous sometimes. That sometimes he's not gonna be a good boy and that's fine as long as he doesn't hurt anybody or himself. Like when he gets up in the middle of the night to eat the snacks his parents stacked away for themselves, or when he messes up the carefully folded laundry his dad just brought to his room.

Does this fall in that category? Skipping school to play around with your best friend...?

What would his mommy think of this? He wonders if she ever skipped school.

Konoha gets a flash of his mommy’s face in his head; Takane’s just smiling at him, saying “School sucks!”

It’s not even a specific memory. Mommy’s always saying school sucks and she’s not afraid to say she hated every second of it. Usually dad gives her a disapproving look because of it, making mommy smile nervously and add “uh, but you guys study hard, okay?” but not even Konoha is clueless enough to miss that she doesn’t mean it.

...Oh. His mommy _definitely_ skipped school at least once. And if she didn't, he's not so sure she'll be upset about him doing it.

If he does this and she finds out, well, she'll probably think it's pretty cool and give it a laugh. His dad however, _could_ lose his mind, but he’s sure mommy would talk sense into him and he won’t get in trouble.

Not that getting in trouble was the problem, though. He just doesn’t want to lie to them. If he does this, he is indeed planning to come clean afterwards. He’s sure that if he begs them not to tell Shion’s parents they won’t. Right? Right. 

And with that thought, Konoha nods, "Okay. I'll go with you."

Shion shoots up from her spot, her hazel eyes sparkling with delight, "Really!? Oh, it's gonna be so much fun!"

She gives him a quick hug before jumping off the bed, her braid of fluffy white hair hitting him in the face as she swifts up. She starts rummaging in her bag for her journal, taking the pen she had tied to it to probably fill it in with the news.

He watches her, content with himself. He was still a little nervous, but he won't deny he's kind of pretty excited for tomorrow.

Suddenly a soft knock comes from the door, and Konoha offers a "come in" before processing it. His dad's face is popping into the bedroom soon enough, giving no time for Shion to glare at him.

Obviously Konoha's immediately anxious at the sight of him, because, what if he heard!? Oh, he absolutely heard, didn't he?

However, with a smiling face, Haruka simply turns to look at Shion, "Shion-chan, your dad's here!"

Ah. Of course.

"Oh, shoot! Why didn't he text me first, jeez. Okay, coming!"

Shion throws her bag across her shoulder after putting back her journal, quickly walking over to grab her sweater in Konoha's desk chair. Haruka watches patiently with a smile, so Konoha guessed it was safe to assume he hadn't heard a thing. Thank god.

Quickly enough Shion was ready, and before following behind Haruka, she goes, "See you tomorrow at school, soldier~"

Ah, and she's already lying. And just like that, Shion goes back home.

* * *

It'd be an understatement to say he's a nervous wreck.

Konoha looks at his breakfast and forces himself to sip on the tea. To let you know how serious it is, he honestly felt like he couldn't eat. Gosh, and his serving's pretty big, too. It always is.

His family doesn't seem to notice, but that could be because they were all doing their own thing. His father's packing all their lunches while singing a silly song about it, his big sister Fuyuha was sleepily munching on a toast as she scrolled on her phone, and his mother was in the exact same state as her.

He looks at his scrambled eggs and feels nausea creeping up on him. Hmmm... his stomach felt completely closed up, ugh...

"Three lunches packed for my beautiful family~" his dad goes, chirpy as usual. He’s somehow incredibly enthusiastic in the mornings, despite he's such a heavy sleeper and on off days he sleeps until noon along with mommy. "They would've been ready earlier but I overlsept~"

See?

Haruka kisses the top of Takane’s head as she uttered a small thanks. Fuyuha only hummed, and probably didn’t even listen to him. He sits down on the fourth chair to eat as well, and oh shoot, he's looking directly at Konoha. Oh shoot, oh shoot.

"Everything alright?" Haruka asks, and despite he was still smiling, Konoha could recognize the slight concern (or confusion) on his face.

"Yeah," to everyone else he totally sounded the same as always; bland, calm, sweet. But to his own ears Konoha sounded like a mess. "Why?"

"Well, it's just that you've barely touched your food," his dad answers, and at the statement his mommy looks up from her phone.

She raises an eyebrow, "Oh. That's unusual. Everything alright buddy?"

Oh. Yeah. He can see how that'd be a cause for concern. He's usually so excited about breakfast–

Konoha nods his head before taking a bite to reassure them, and since he's him, he continues eating like it's nothing. Huh, it's like he just had to get it started with. He speaks with a mouthfull, "I'm fine!"

"Swallow before you speak, sweetie," his dad kindly reminds him, and Konoha nods again, quietly continuing to eat.

His parents offer him a smile before moving on to chatting about boring grown up stuff, that being tonight's dinner. Well, that’s not really boring; in fact, he’d usually be excitedly participating, because it’s food and he loves food. But for now he just listens absently as he tries to rush finishing his breakfast, because the sooner he was out of here the better.

They weren't even looking at him but he felt like his parents knew about everything and they were testing him. He felt like they absolutely know what Shion and him planned. They heard yesterday, or maybe they can read his mind! Then auntie Mary and uncle Seto absolutely know about it, too! _Gosh, Shion, I'm so sorry!_

"I said no. Everyone in favour of eating barbecue again tonight raise their hand."

Mommy's voice suddenly urges towards him and Fuyuha, popping Konoha's bubble of thought. Haruka immediately raises his hand, and after he processes the request Konoha does too.

As soon as he does though, his mommy looks at him with a glacial look, and so he slowly puts his hand down. Takane smiles, "Three against one, Haruka."

"You gave Konoha a dirty look and he backed out," Haruka pouts. "This is electoral fraud."

"I can't go against mommy, dad. I'm sorry."

"That's my boy!" mommy claps her hands together before leaning to her side to press a kiss on her husband's cheek. "Just make something else. We are not eating barbecue everyday."

Haruka just pouts again and Takane softly pushes him away. Konoha stares at the banter; he sees it everyday, really... His parents have known each other since highschool. They were classmates. Dad really changes his mind about most things if mommy does as much as say please... So maybe, they've...

"Have you guys ever skipped school?" Konoha asks before he could help himself. Haruka's eyes go wide, as if he couldn't believe the question, while Takane had no surprise and simply looked up and hummed. They answered at the same time,

"No!"

"Sure.”

They turn to look at each other in a flash. Haruka looks at his wife with desperate eyes, to which she just goes, "I mean... no. Uhhh, we studied sooo hard~"

Fuyuha breathes out a laugh from her spot, finally looking away from her phone, "You absolutely skipped school before, mom."

Takane's face relaxes and she laughs along, resting her head on her hand, "Pff, yeah."

"Takane!"

"What!" mommy shrugs at dad like he's being unreasonable. "They're not babies. _Yes,_ we've skipped school before.”

“Stop!” Haruka holds his head, his face had heated up in embarrassment. “God, we’re such a bad influence...!”

Konoha can't help smiling at the sight... it's cute his dad doesn't want to be a bad influence, but mommy's right, it's not like this is gonna motivate him and his sister to skip school or anything.

Except it will. Mommy's cool. And Konoha... Konoha wants to be as cool as mommy one day. 

“It’s not bad being honest, Haruka,” Takane rolls her eyes. “Just don’t do it, guys. It’s stupid, alright? Go to school and don’t make your father sad.”

Hearing that, he almost chokes in his tea. Before he could guiltily scream out what he planned to do today, his mommy continued to talk,

“Why are you asking, anyway?”

At the question, somehow he doesn’t spill it out. Somehow, his first instinct is to say... “Some characters did it on the manga I’m reading.”

He said the first thing to come to mind. And the first thing to come to mind was a lie.

He feels as if his face was melting off. Because... did he just... lie? To his parents? To... to _mommy?_

His horror is apparently not evident at all because all he gets as an answer is a laid back okay. And soon enough mommy’s kissing dad goodbye to go to work and everyone’s acting like everything’s normal. Oh, boy.

Konoha arrives at his and Shion’s usual meeting spot with sulking energy, still upset about the situation that took place during breakfast.

He sighs. His parents didn’t look weirded out at all. They completely accepted the answer like it was nothing. Konoha’s never lied before, at least not to this extent, so he doubts he’s any good at it. So his parents not doubting him means they trust him.

And he just completely disregarded that with a dumb lie he didn’t even need to include. Shion did tell him he didn’t need to say anything, so why did he?! Why can’t he follow simple directions?

He feels guilt crawling on his stomach as if the butterflies he’s been told that live there were having a fight, and just as he was breathing out another sigh he feels something crawling on his shoulders.

“BWAAAA!”

“AH! SHION!”

Konoha turns around, terrified, only to find his snickering friend behind him. He manages a weak laugh, putting a hand over his chest to feel his heartbeat, “You almost scare me to death...”

“Sorry~ But consider it a lesson. _Always_ be on guard when you're outside!"

She playfully sticks her tongue out. Just like him, Shion is wearing her school uniform and had her bag. He knew that didn’t mean anything, because the plan _is_ to pretend to go to school. She also had a second bag, but that wasn't unusual with Shion. She's always bringing extra stuff everywhere, in case of adventures, so today was a definitive second bag day.

“Anyway, so– huh? Hey, what’s wrong?”

The change of tone takes him off guard, but at the sight of her worried face, he realizes she must’ve noticed his mood.

“Ah? Oh, um...” Konoha awkwardly looks down, softly kicking a small stone on the pavement. “N– nothing...”

“Hey, you don’t need to do this if you don’t wanna,” she repeats, her voice taking that soft tone she rarely ever uses. It’s not quite demanding, but it’s not quite tame either. “I want you to come, obviously... but only if you do too. I don’t want you to come out of obligation because you don’t want to disappoint me or something.”

Shion is a very understanding person despite the impression she gives off, really. He’s known her since forever, so it doesn’t come as a surprise to him, but he understands how most people would be surprised at seeing her like that. He’s actually pretty sure she only shows this side of herself to him and her sister Hana, anyway.

“No, it’s okay, I want to go,” he eventually says. “It’s just... well, during breakfast I asked my parents if they ever skipped school.”

“You did _what!?_ ” Shion’s gentle voice is gone as fast as it arrived. She starts stomping on the ground. “Konoha! I asked you for _one_ thing!”

“I – I know, I’m sorry!”

“Ughh, now my parents are gonna–”

“No, no. They aren’t onto me,” Konoha interrupts her, taking her off guard. She stops her tantrum and looks at him with questioning eyes, “I asked them that and mommy said yes and asked me why I was asking and I said I’m reading a manga that features a character who skipped school and she believed me and it was all like nothing happened!”

He says it all in one breath, so he’s panting by the time he’s done. Shion stares with a shocked expression, blinking at him as she probably processed all of that. Which... was valid, considering there was a lot to unpack in what he just said.

“That’s... so cool!”

“Huh!?”

“Can’t believe you lied to your parents! That’s so cool, I’m so proud of you, Konoha!”

“O – of course you’re proud...” he can’t help a chuckle. “I can’t say I am, though.”

“Well, I told you you didn’t need to say anything, so that’s your problem,” Shion laughs proudly. “Also, your parents skipping school? Amazing! My dad dropped out for a few years, you know? But I wouldn’t say he ever _skipped_ skipped, not like this anyway. And my mom? Homeschooled, as you know. Basically my parents are boring. That’s so cool! Your parent’s have always been so cool, I’m jealous...”

“Y – yeah, they’re pretty neat...” Konoha smiles, content with the positive reaction but trying not to let the talk about his parents being great make him feel guilty over his lie. He just won’t think about it for now. He’ll come clean when he gets home. “My dad was pretty embarrassed though, he was saying they were a bad influece because of it.”

“If someone’s a bad influence that’s me, not them,” Shion laughed, and started walking on an opposite way to where they usually went. That being, an opposite way to school.

Konoha hurries to follow her, clearing his throat when he catches up. He tries coming back to her ealier statement and says, “Y – your parents are cool too, Shion.”

“Sure,” Shion rolls her eyes. “My parents, the florists. Sure as cool as your videogame developer parents.”

“Don’t say that. Your parents are very sweet and their flower shop is lovely.”

“Your mom is a professional programmer and your dad makes the sickest and coolest art I’ve ever seen! My parents arrange flowers for rich people,” she says, and before Konoha could argue, Shion shushes him. “I don’t wanna hear another word about the matter. Anyway. Let’s go buy ice cream.”

“Huh?” Konoha nervously checks his phone, careful not to fall (he’s kind of clumsy when he walks without paying attention. And when he walks paying attention he’s still kind of clumsy). “But it’s only eight.”

“So?” Shion laughs. "Turn off your phone, too. This is gonna be an adventure!"

They stare at each other for a second and then Konoha offers her the brightest smile. He turns off his phone, and they go get morning ice cream.

* * *

“The first part of him she saw was his shoulder, and through the slender gap, she slowly, painfully, inched her hand in until it rested there. His clothing was cool. He did not wake.”

Shion’s reading voice fills the quiet air as Konoha waves his foot up and down, his leg on top of his other leg, his hands tucked on top of his stomach and his head comfortably laying on his school bag. Sitting next to him, Shion quietly but clearly read to him.

They both sat under the bridge that was maybe a little too far away from what Konoha usually knows. He doesn’t really go further than necessary, let alone by himself, but Shion prides herself in being a wanderer and always takes him to quiet places she had discovered and appreciated. 

Konoha blows bubbles on his bubble blower as his friend reads, the breeze caressing their hair and making the bubbles travel in the air. Some of them stick on the water in the river, letting the soft stream take them away.

Here, next to the quiet river, Shion likes to sit by and read. It’s the first time she’s bringing him here, and he must say it’s quite a lovely spot. Maybe it’s the fact it’s a week day and at this time everyone is at work or at school, so everything’s especially quiet, but something about it felt so nicely magical.

As if they’re in their own little world, separated from the rest.

“The scrawled words of practice stood magnificently on the wall by the stairs, jagged and childlike and sweet,” Shion read. ”They looked on as both the hidden jew and the girl slept, hand to shoulder. I’m hungry.”

It takes him a second to notice that doesn’t sound right. Konoha turns his head, “Who? Liesel or Death?"

“I'm not talking about the book silly, _I’m_ hungry,” Shion chuckles, closing the book after folding the corner of the page they were on. “Let’s have lunch already.”

“But I wanna know what happens next!” Konoha sits up, and Shion smiles brightly and proudly as she took her lunch box out of her bag. If there was something she loved to hear, it’s probably Konoha begging her to keep reading.

“It’s the end of the chapter, just chill for a minute.”

“Fiiine~” he sighs, turning to grab his bag and grab his own lunch. He forgets all about the book when he feels his stomach rumbling, “Ohhh, food!”

“Mm-hm,” Shion goes, her mouth full. Something else to remark on Shion is that despite her messines, not only does she have beautiful handwriting but she has remarkable table manners, again prompted by Mary.

Konoha doesn’t have bad manners at all, in fact he and his sister are always told they’re lovely and polite. But he’s a normal kind of polite. Shion, on the other hand, goes beyond only being polite; she’s almost formal. It’s kind of weird for people to see a girl with leaves and sticks in her hair put up her pinky to drink water. But that’s just how auntie Mary is, and so her daughters are the same.

(Don’t mention it to Shion though, or else she’ll purposefully try to stop it).

"So I see you're enjoying the book so far?" Shion inquires, trying to sound indifferent, but Konoha is able to recognize the excited anticipation in her voice. He nods and waits to swallow his food to answer,

"Yeah! It's pretty interesting," he says, making Shion smile proudly. The book she's been reading to him this morning is her current favourite book after all, and she is re-reading it for him today to let him experience it as well. "I like when you read stuff to me, but I wonder why don't you ever read happier stuff."

Shion's proud aura washes off when she hears that, raising an eyebrow, "What do you mean?"

"Like... I don't know~ For example, this book is set on World War II... Lots of the books you read are, actually," Konoha nervously points out, but Shion kept looking at him like she didn't understand what the problem was. "I mean! They're always very very sad."

"...Not _all_ of them are about war," Shion shakes her head. "I've got a preference for historical fiction, that's all."

"Well, that's what I'm saying~ You love wordy and old books that are hard to follow."

"I try to choose ones that are easy to understand so you won't be lost, though," Shion was looking away by now, her cheeks puffed up. He doesn't know if it's because she just took a bite of a rice ball or because she's embarrassed (it's both).

Konoha quickly shakes his head at the confusion, "I– I know~ I'm not saying I don't appreciate it, I do... Your selections are super interesting and it makes me happy you wanna share them with me. I'm just saying– you know~ I prefer fantasy settings and stuff."

"You do," Shion nods. "That's why you read manga, though. I try to educate you further than that with these books."

"I'm not saying I want you to read me something else. I'm just saying..." he takes a breath, wondering how to word this. He decides to maybe bring it up with something a tad daring, "Doesn't... _your mom_... love these types of books?"

Shion looks back at him, dumbfounded, "Excuse me."

"W– well!" Konoha chuckles nervously, but Shion's distate of the proposal was still evident. "I know you read these books to me not only to "educate" me but because you want someone to talk about them with. You obviously can't read me the hundred books you love or consider I'll be too bored by, so I thought your mom could be a good–"

"No way," she cuts him off, but it's not like he wasn't expecting that. "My mom... she likes reading, sure, but the stuff I read isn't particularly her taste. She says they're grim and she'd rather have me read more fantasy."

"Yeah, fantasy's good, Shion~ Like, like! Harry Potter! That's pretty famous and it's fun and has magic! I've seen a few movies."

"I've read those books," she scoffs. "Nothing to be impressed about. Just a made up world that makes you upset about the real one. What's so good about that? By reading historical books, written by people hundred of years ago, you get a look into the lives on those who had it so hard. You get a first person look on what humanity is capable of. You get to appreciate our current reality, and to continue mourning those who were unfortunate enough to live in those times. It is thanks to them we've come so far."

Konoha munches on his food and looks away awkwardly as Shion continues speaking. He... might've stepped in strange waters, but he lets her speak.

Shion, now lost in her words, continues her trail of thought, "Magic's good too. It's fun, I guess. I've read several fantasy books... they're just so..."

She looks down to her pink water bottle and sighs,

"It makes you upset to come back to reality afterwards," she says, and sips on her water. Konoha hums,

"I guess," he sighs as well. "But it's still fun. Aren't you always investigating the supernatural, after all? It surprises me you don't believe in it."

"I never said I don't believe in it!" Shion puts down the bottle with force, completely shifting back to her usual demanding attitude. "It's just a bit upsetting to read made-up worlds. I like reading research of magic and essays with proof. Not just a story about a mermaid's love life! The uncertainty... the _mystery..._ that's what makes it exciting. That's what makes you want to be here, in our reality, to continue hunting for a drop of magic!"

"Ah... that makes sense..." Konoha smiles at Shion's utter excitement on the matter, and she offers a toothy grin in return. "That's very cool, Shion... it's a nice way to approach life, I guess. You're really smart."

"Thank you," Shion's cheeks were tilted in pink now, but she continues smiling, "But anyway. That's why I don't wanna talk about them to mom. She just... wants me to be different. She wants me to get into more fictional stuff, and she hates that I keep trying to _look_ for proof the supernatural could be real."

"Yeah..." Konoha sighs, looking away at the water stream to clear his head. "I see."

"She doesn't understand me. No one understands me," he's not looking at her, but he hears the hurt in her voice. When he looks back at her though, her eyes meet with his as she says, "You do, though."

Konoha nods, not sure of what to say, but Shion only adds,

"And even when you don't, you don't judge me... and you don't hang out with me out of obligation because of our parents," Shion isn't smiling, but her tone says enough. "You accept me."

"Of course, Shion," he says. "I think you're fantastic."

Shion smiles at him, the rare sight of her eyes watering unfolding in front of him. Konoha only smiles back, and both go back to eating.

There's a pause, in which both continue eating peacefully as Konoha thought of what to say. He knows Shion and her mom don't have the best relationship, so he feels a bit guilty for bringing it up just like that. 

He just wants Mary and Shion to get along. He just wants them to be happy. He just wants Shion to be happy.

Konoha sighs, looking at his empty lunch box with melancholy. What to do, really...

"Would you come with me somewhere?"

Shion's voice suddenly fills the silence, bringing Konoha back from his bubble of thought. He blinks at her, processing the question, before going, "Of course. Now?"

"Yeah," she goes, as both of them started cleaning up after themselves. "It's kind of far away though, that's why I'm asking..."

"Uhhh..." he tries looking at the time on his phone, but of course only a black screen stares back at him. Right, he had turned it off earlier in the morning. "Well, do we have time?"

Shion's phone is turned off too, so she hums and checks her pocket watch, because of course she has one, and of course it's a vintage item she found online and then asked her dad to repair for her, and goes, "It's almost three."

"Ah, we're gonna have to go back home soon!" Konoha exclaims. Gosh, time sure did go fast this morning. They only went to a convenience store for ice cream and other snacks, then walked here and have been reading since then... time well spent, he thinks. "I don't know if we'll make it if we have to go far away."

"Relax, I told my parents I'm hanging out with you after school and they obviously told yours so they'll expect us to come home late," Shion laughs, "And it's not even lying. So, you in?"

Ah, of course... Shion as organized as ever. Konoha hums, "Uh, well... Just how far, anyway? I've never gone too far without my parents..."

"Well, but you trust me to take you, right?"

He answers in a heartbeat, "Absolutely."

"Good. Let's go."

* * *

Konoha drums on his school bag laying on his lap as he looks around the empty train.

There sure is a difference in riding a train during school hours... he doesn't think he's ever had this experience before. Truly, as if he and Shion were in their own little world. It's just the best kind of feeling.

Everything was quiet, except for the quiet rumbling of the vehicle and the turning of the pages of Shion's book. She's currently reading a different book from earlier, and to herself. Konoha isn't sure how many books she brought today, really. Shion's known for carrying around more than one book at a time anyway.

He sighs. He won't lie that it's getting a bit tedious. He even got bored of mentally going over species of beetles...

They've been in the train for about thirty minutes or so, he's not sure because his phone's still off. Perhaps it's been longer, since he can already see through the window dirt roads, lesser houses and more green. She really wasn't lying when she said it'd be pretty far away... it felt like they were out of the city.

He'd ask Shion to continue reading to him but he's not sure he's gonna be able to concentrate at all; he always gets kind of sleepie at this time of day. There's nothing like an after school nap, and he guesses his body was too used to it because it was going "hey buddy! Let me nap for a little!"

He considers just sleeping here, after all the train _is_ empty... He hums, "Hey Shion, mind if I take a little nap?"

"Huuh?" Shion goes, taking a second to look away from the book. "We're gonna be there soon, I'd advise against falling asleep now."

"Aw, man..." Konoha pouts. "I should've napped when we got on."

"Just hang in there. I can give you a book if you'd like."

"No thanks... don't think I'm gonna be able to focus."

Going back to reading, Shion sing sangs, "Suit yourself~"

Konoha yawns. He stops tapping on his bag and lays his head back, turning to look out the window when he... sees it.

A fabulous, shiny, cute slug was slowly sliming across the top of the seat, barely a few centimeters away from his and Shion's spot. Konoha feels his jaw drop.

"Oh my," he utters. "I didn't expect to find a friend here."

"Found a bug?" Shion absently asks, not looking away from her page. Konoha nods despite he knows she's not looking at him. "Nice. Whatcha gonna call him. Or her."

"Slugs are usually hermaphrodites," Konoha goes, putting his bag on the side so he could kneel on the seat and stare at the slug closer. "They're both girls and boys."

"Ah, sorry," Shion corrects herself, "Whatcha gonna call them, then?"

"Train," Konoha says. "It's gender neutral and we found them on the train."

His friend hums, "Very appropiate. Hi, Train, nice to meet you."

"Yes, nice to meet you..." Konoha coos. "I'm Konoha and this is my best friend Shion. I hope you're having a nice ride. Where are you going? Shion and I are going... where are we going, Shion?"

"I'm reading "An Artist of the Floating World", ever heard of it, Train?" Shion ignores the question and follows to keep talking to Train. Konoha doesn't pay attention to it, as both of them look at the slug as if waiting for an answer,

"Maybe they can't read. I don't think they teach that in slug school."

"What a shame..."

He hums, opening his bag to grab his phone, "Hey, Shion, I'll turn on my phone to take a picture of them."

Shion huffs, "Phones may be convenient, but they take away the beauty of using a big camera to do the job. I bet it was exciting to go get your pictures processed and then revealed to you."

Konoha nods, "Yeah. Anyway I'll turn my phone on."

"Go for it. Don't forget to silence it though, so we don't get bothered."

"Sure thing!"

And so he does. Konoha silences his phone as soon as it turns on, starting a lovely photoshoot of Train as they continued traveling in silence.

When he thinks he's taken enough, he sits back and smiles at the little slug. _Thank you for letting me hang out with you, I hope you safely get wherever you're going._

He starts looking at how the pictures came out when notifications start popping up on the screen. Out of habit, Konoha starts looking through them. He raises an eyebrow.

_Mommy (17) missed calls._

_Dad (12) missed calls._

_Auntie Mary (8) missed calls._

_Uncle Seto (6) missed calls._

...Huh? Why was he so popular today, jeez~ He sure hopes they weren't worried when he didn't pick up. Besides, if he were at school why would they be calling so much!

A text from mommy read "Konoha, where are you?" so he happily answers it by saying "with Shion!" because that's not a lie and that's what Shion told her parents anyway. Completely clueless, he happily puts his phone back in his bag, just as Shion's grabbing his arm.

"Let's go, Konoha!" she's getting up from her seat, so after a small "yay" Konoha follows behind. She turns for a second to go, "Bye-bye, Train!"

"Bye-bye!" Konoha also waves at the slug. "Have a safe travel!"

And so, they both get off the train.

The train stop was small and empty, but when they climb the stairs and he gets a look of the area, he has no trouble identifying the situation. It's been a while, but Konoha has been around here enough times to quickly realize where they were.

He feels his eyes go wide, "Are we going to your house?"

"My old house now, technically," she sighs. "But yes, we are. Let's go."

She starts walking, so he loses no time in following her, the train stop becoming farther as they delved into the forest.

As she walked, Shion put her book back in her bag after bookmarking it, carefully and professionally dodging grown roots that stuck out of the ground in very cool ways. Konoha, on his side, struggles a bit more. He's gone to Shion's old house countless times of course, but he's always been _taken_ there, so Shion finds herself stopping to wait for him a lot.

However, they walked in silence.

Here's the thing. Shion grew up in the forest.

Well, not quite in the forest, but in a house in the forest. A house that her great grandfather Tsukihiko built for her great grandmother Azami, where they raised her grandmother Shion, and where then her grandmother Shion raised her mother Mary. And then, where Mary and her husband Kousuke raised their daughters Shion and Hana.

It's quite a big house, it had the looks of a tower and a cottage mixed together, and the generations of loving families living there made it even better. It was where the Mekakushi Dan spent Christmas, New year's, birthdays and just any kind of celebration; it's a house loved by all.

However, it's a long travel to get there. Mary and Seto work in the city, and Shion and Hana go to school in the city. It wasn't very practical for them; they all used to get up around five in the morning only to get ready for the day! Konoha thinks it's nuts!

And so, around last year, Mary and Seto decided to move to the city. They moved their flower shop and their family, and currently they lived in the small apartment located above the new shop.

For Shion, it was... a difficult change to accept. She moved out kicking and screaming, to say the least.

"There we go!"

After around twenty minutes of walking, Shion makes a run for it as soon as she spots the house, and Konoha would do the same if his legs weren't so tired already. The house was quite far from the train station, really. Almost as if it were built hidden or something.

 _Oh wait, it was,_ Konoha's awakening eyes memories say.

"W– wait, Shion, do you even have keys?"

"Duh!" Shion holds her gigantic key holder up in the air. "I have a copy of everyone's keys, dummy."

"Ah, right..."

She waits for him at the front of the house as he catches up, already feeling a bit out of breath. Man, he couldn't wait to sit down...!

He'd ask why they're here, but it honestly didn't surprise him that Shion would want to come here. However, he asks, "Why come here by yourself, though? I'm sure your parents could bring you if you wanted."

After all, as of now the around and inside of the home was being used as a green house for the shop. Mary and Seto come by extremely often, and not only that, but also Shion's little sister Hana since she has a love for gardening... and for mixing dead plants into water and making them mush with a mortar and pestle, but Hana's witchy tendencies aside, she loves gardening.

Basically, her family keeps coming here, and they made use of the house.

Shion scoffs as she turned the key, "I do, sometimes. But they mostly just make me help around since we only come here for work. I do get away sometimes to go read in my room, but it's not the same, you know?"

"Ah, I see..."

The door opens and the smell of humidity and flowers hits Konoha in the face in the best way possible.

He's a bit taken back; he hasn't seen this place since the Seto family moved last year, so the nursery garden version of the house was new to him.

The place always had a 50's look to it, with checkered floors and colorful wallpaper. Not quite like the ones you'd see in movies though; this one has always been, despite well-kept, rundown and old.

That was another of the reasons Seto and Mary made the decision they made. They could only remodel so much.

The spots of humidity and mold in the ceiling have gotten worse, as well as the mosquitoes' love for the place, especially around the pots full of water with floating plants. Good thing Shion's always ready and has mosquito spray with her.

(Konoha loves bugs but mosquitoes are mean).

"It's so quiet," Shion breathes in, closing the door behind her. She even closes with the chain lock. "I miss this place..."

They begin walking towards the stairs that led up. Shion walked completely sure of herself, maybe because like always, she's wearing big boots, while Konoha mostly tiptoed through the rotten and limp wood of the stairs.

"Yeah..." Konoha, despite the state of the place, can't help but agree. "So many birthdays here..."

"Absolutely!" the way her boots stood on the wood made him nervous. He felt as if her feet would stab through a step any moment now. "There's so many memories in this place...!"

As she says that, she jumps off the last step and dodges a hole in the floor. Konoha grimaces at it. He remembers when Shion told him uncle Seto had made that hole just by walking. He dodges it as well and follows behind.

It doesn't surprise him when she rounds up to her bedroom, also full of flowers and plants. And mosquitoes. Shion doesn't seem to mind much, or she was just used to it, as she squeezed through all of them so she could get in.

"This is my spot!" Shion says, and when Konoha is done dodging all the leaves, he sees a small spot in the corner of the once bedroom. It had a small floor mat and a flashlight taped to the wall. "It's where I come read when we come over and I can escape flower chores."

"Oh..." is all he can say, because he feels like it's rude to say what he was really thinking.

It was... gross. This entire house, it's gross.

Gross. Gross. Gross.

He's never seen this place like this. Auntie Mary is known for keeping everything spotless, so despite the house's clearly obsolete state, it had always been sparkling clean.

It was humid, sure, they had to boil water to get hot water for baths, sure, the floorboards were a threat to safety, _sure..._ but it was always clean, at least.

It's crazy how one year of inhabitation could make a house become... completely abandoned? And they didn't even stop coming here, either. Gosh.

"Well, aren't you gonna sit down?" Shion however, seemed completely unaware of it or just attached enough to not care. She's already sitting crisscrossed on the mat, gently patting the spot in front of her. "I'll read to you some more!"

"Uhh..." Konoha leans in a bit, trying to see how he could see so the floor wouldn't even touch him, but it was complicated. He sighs, and sits down where she told him to. Shion smiles brightly at him.

She gets her hands into her second bag, the one she always puts her Survival For Adventure stuff, such as bug spray, extra pens, her swiss knife, etcetera. But for now, she takes out a thermos and two plastic mugs, "Hot chocolate?"

"Oh," now that's something he's very interested in. "Yes please!"

He grabs one of the mugs and happily watches Shion pour in some hot chocolate for him. They clink their cups before taking their first sips.

Shion lays back against the wall, cheerfully, "Ahh, this is the stuff, Konoha! This place is home."

"Your new place is nice too, Shion..." Konoha offers, but she just rolls her eyes. "I mean, it's all so new and modern."

"Are you kidding me?" she scoffs at him, sipping on her chocolate with desdain. "That place means nothing. This is home. There's history here. What would my great grandmother Azami think of us abandoning the house her husband built her! It's ridiculous."

Konoha can't find an answer to that. Well, he considered saying many things. He considers saying the place isn't really abandoned, they still use it for work. He considers saying Azami would be pleased to know her family made a decision that was ultimately safer for everyone and they're more comfortable now, too. But in the end he just stays quiet, because he doesn't want to say anything Shion doesn't want to hear. 

If it's her happy place, he's not going to wreck it with those facts she probably already knows deep down.

"Not to mention it's in the woods. How cool is that?" Shion chuckles. "Growing up with deers around the house... our yard is an entire forest! Nothing tops that!"

"Well, but now you guys have a working toilet," Konoha can't help saying, and Shion sighs.

"Fine. The apartment might have one good thing. Water works properly," she rolls her eyes. "But I'd rather keep having my dad clog the toilet everyday if it means I get to look out the window and see this."

Shion kneels to look out the window, resting her arms in the windowsill as she drank her hot chocolate. Despite her graphic and gross wording, she sounded sweet. Konoha kneels down with her to look as well.

It really was beautiful. They could see all the tree branches, birds nests, the river...

"I miss it here," Shion says with melancholy, and there's nothing Konoha can think of saying to make her feel better. She turns to him with a smile, despite her eyes were sad, "Thank you for coming here with me, Konoha."

"Of course, anytime," he says, smiling back. "I'll go with you to the end of the world, Shion."

"That's sweet," she sighs, putting her empty mug behind them and then coming back to properly lay her head on her arms. "But I don't deserve that."

"Sure you do," Konoha turns to sit again, still finishing his own hot choco. "Why do you say that?"

"Because I dragged you all the way out here," she goes, and before he could say he came here because he wanted to accompany her, she says, "And I intend to make you come back alone."

It takes him a second.

"W– wait, what?"

"I don't wanna go back," Shion answers immediately, her face frozen in that same empty expression she looked at him with. She buries half of her face on her arms. "I'm already home."

"Sh– Shion, wait a second," Konoha chuckles nervously, putting down the mug and coming back to her side. "Your parents are going to be so worried if you don't get home..."

"I know that!" she suddenly raises her voice, making Konoha jump. "They'll have to take me by force, I don't care! I don't wanna go back to that stupid apartment, or take care of stupid flowers, or go to that stupid school! Ugh! I'm so tired of doing things I don't want to do!"

Konoha stays quiet, quietly staring at his friend in surprise. The situation took a turn so suddenly he doesn't really know what to say, what to do– he just doesn't know how to react.

After a pause, Shion breathes out a shaky sigh and softly goes, "Sorry for yelling at you. I didn't mean to, it's not your fault."

"It– it's okay," he says. "You know I'm here if you need to talk about anything, you know?"

Shion shakes her head, "I don't want to."

"Why not?" he suddenly feels alerted, and something in his chest felt wrong. Is that what heartbreak felt like? "What about what you said earlier? How I'm the only one who understands you?"

"You do. It's not about that," Shion says. "I just... I feel like everyone knows something I don't."

Konoha gulps.

"I know I said I would give up my investigation on the family secret. The Mekakushi Dan," Shion looks at him with serious eyes, getting away from the window to sit back. "The red eyes."

Shion buries her face on her knees, sighing again. Konoha can only sit here and stare.

"But I can't help myself."

Has he already mentioned... that he has no idea how to react?

"Why does it upset my mom so much?" Shion questions. "Why does it upset everyone so much? What _is_ it?"

Konoha's mouth feels dry.

He knows, because he remembers, and _lived_ it, the ordeal auntie Mary wants to hide from Shion so bad. The ordeal everyone wanted to forget about so bad.

His parents, Shion's parents, everyone else in their chosen family. The Mekakushi Dan. They all wanted to leave the past behind so bad.

Konoha understands how Mary feels so delicate and defensive, dreading to keep it locked away, wanting her daughter to be safely away from it all. She feels like she doesn't deserve to know, not because she's not worthy, but because she's far too precious. She's far too important. She needs to be protected from it.

Curiosity killed the cat, after all. Mary's terrified of Shion being the cat.

But the entire situation makes their relationship so difficult. Konoha wishes to help his auntie Mary, his _friend_ Mary, but... after thirteen years of being his own person, of being best friends with Shion... the memories of the Daze, the red eyes and everything else feel so distant, as if he had been an infant when he lived it. It's very strange.

And all in all, after all this time, after getting his own life and as he's growing up, he can't help feeling biased for Shion. She is his best friend, and the Mekakushi Dan doesn't even know Awakening Eyes is alive and reincarnated as Kokonose Haruka and Ene's son, anyway. He just wants to help Shion so bad, but there's something (the past) that keeps holding him back.

His job as Shion's best friend holds him back. The story is far too cruel for her.

"I just wanna know things," Shion mutters. "I want to know everything there is to know about the world. I want to know all of the secrets it hides. And I feel like there's one right in front of me and everyone refuses to tell me and it's just so... frustrating..."

Shion looks up at him again, fire in her eyes,

"I want to go on adventures," she says. "I want to write them down in my journals. I want to live stories and then write them, I want to experience everything there is to experience. I want to travel my entire life, live in complete isolation without being known, only exhanging letters with my sister and my best friend until I die tragically young under suspicious circumstances, my work only being recognized when I'm gone... like Van Gogh."

"Who now?"

"The guy who cut off his ear."

"Ah."

Silence sets among them again.

What should he do.

How can he help?

"...I'm on your side, Shion," he eventually says, tightly holding her hand. "I'm always going to be on your side."

Shion nods, resting her head on her knees and looking away but holding his hand back, "Thank you."

She doesn't need to know. No matter how much she wants it– Shion just doesn't need to know. Even if she doesn't know it, she represents a big part of the Mekakushi Dan moving forward; of Kozakura Mary moving forward.  
As her firstborn, Shion represented a new chapter in Mary's life. The next blessed step of the nightmare her entire life had been until then. And for her to just work so hard to just _talk_ about what was meant to be left behind was just eating her up.

Konoha sighs. 

Why... is everything so difficult for her?

Before a comfortable silence could properly descend on them, a strong, sharp cry rang through the house and probably the entire forest. It even made birds fly away.

"SHIIIIIIIIIIIIIIION!"

"KONOHAAAAAAAA!"

"SHIIIIIIIIIIOOOOOOON!"

Konoha and Shion look at each other in utter shock.

Konoha's first thought is, oh god, a ghost is calling for them!? But then Shion screams on a whisper, "How the heck did they find us?"

And then Konoha recognizes those screams were his mommy and uncle Seto's voices.

"Oh my god!" Konoha, also adapting his panicked voice into a whisper, is quick to start losing his mind. "Wh– what are they doing here!?"

"How should I know!" Shion runs her hands through her face in frustration, starting to gather all her stuff in her bags at lightning speed. "Ugh!"

As their parents' voices continued to desperately call for them and asking where they are, Konoha breathes out, "They sound so worried! I thought we–"

"Listen, Konoha, I have no idea how the hell they found us or why they sound so freaking scared," Shion goes, hanging both her bags in her shoulders. Now they could hear the door trying to be opened, but since Shion had put the chain lock, they couldn't. "But we need to hide. Right now."

"Why?" Konoha blinks at her, and Shion looks at him like she can't believe him. "You don't want to be found?! They– they're desperate!"

"Konoha," Shion says, voice serious. She holds his hand, "I don't want to be found. I'm going to hide. If you want to go to them I'm not going to stop you."

Konoha stares at her in panic, breathing heavily. Looking into Shion's determined eyes while the desperate voices of his family echoes outside doesn't let Konoha concentrate and consider the options. Panting, he looks around, slowly shaking his head at her as if he just didn't know what to say.

Before he could even notice, he's whispering, "Sorry."

"It's fine," she smiles before letting go of his hands and strategically disappearing among the plants in the room.

He sees the leaves moving around and then he's left alone in the humid dark room. Konoha looks around, still hearing the struggle at the door and his family's worried voices.

Slowly, he stands up, grabbing his school bag and lightly shaking his trousers to get off any dirt. He gulps as he goes down the stairs, listening to the voices more and more clearly,

"Are you sure they're here?!" auntie Mary's shaky voice questioned.

"At least Konoha's phone is," mommy says, and Konoha almost gasps. His phone! He turned it on on the train, and also answered a text– shoot! Then, all those calls– they've been looking for them all this time!? "Trackers don't lie, Mary!"

_Trackers?!_

Ough, right, mommy is _Ene!_

"Oh my god, what if they're buried somewhere," he heard his father breathing erratically. Haruka sounded as if he was having an asthma attack. "What if he's just buried with his phone!"

"OH MY GOD, THEY'RE BURIED!" auntie Mary cried, as uncle Seto screamed out,

"SHION, PRINCESS, ARE YOU IN THE GROUND!?"

"CALM DOWN! If they were killed why would they be in your old house of all places!" Takane screamed, and despite trying to calm the rest down, she clearly wasn't in the best condition either. "The school said a classmate was told they were sick, their phones were off the entire day and now I track them and turns out they're here. These are not coincidences. They clearly planned this."

"OUR CHILDREN ARE BANDITS!" Mary cried again.

"I'M BREAKING THE DOOR!"

"KOUSUKE, DON'T BREAK THE DOOR!"

"I'M BREAKING IT!"

"BREAK IT, SETO!"

"HONEY, NO!"

"I'M BREAKING THE DOOR I'M SORRY TSUKIHIKO-SAN–"

Konoha opens the door and is almost tackled by Seto. He screams, uncle Seto screams, everyone screams.

Soon enough, the screams of horror turn into screams of joy.

After a second of shock, everyone exclaims, "Konoha!"

His parents' arms are wrapped around him in a matter of seconds.

"Are you hurt!?"

"I– I'm fine..."

His mother is desperately kissing his face as his father sobs helplessly against his hair bun.

"How dare you do this to us!" after way too many kisses, Takane breaks apart and holds him by the shoulders. Despite her furrowed brows, her eyes were watering. Haruka still held on his son like his life depended on it. "Do you have ANY idea how worried we were?!"

Konoha stutters, "V– very?"

"VERY!" Haruka sobbed. "I THINK I DIED TODAY."

_Which says something since you've died before, dad..._

As everyone kind of tried to catch a breath, auntie Mary comes up from behind, her voice robotical, "Konoha, where's Shion?"

"I..." he starts, but quickly shuts his mouth. At the sight of it, his mother looks at him with severe eyes,

"Konoha," Takane's eyes stare at him as if they could catch him on fire. "Where is Shion."

"I... I can't say..."

"You can't say because you don't know?" Seto tries, his voice softer than everyone else's. "Or... something else?"

Haruka lets go of him to look him in the eye, "Konoha, please tell us where Shion is."

Konoha looks at all of their expectant eyes in panic. Mary's blank face, Haruka and Seto's softer but serious faces, Takane's glare... and then he sighs, "Shion doesn't want you to find her."

Mary chokes out a sob and turns around. Seto looks at her in concern, beginning to reach for her for a second but deciding against it in order to give her space and try to get more information, "Is... she in the house?"

He looks down.

_Sorry, Shion._

Konoha nods.

Mary sobs again, covering her face with both hands. This time Seto does reach for his wife, "Mary, it's alright, we found her. She's safe."

"This is all my fault," Mary chokes out, voice rattling in her throat. Tears that looked like hot glue streamed down her face, her nose having gone completely red already. "I– it– it's all my _fa–faaa–faaaault..."_

The sobbing doesn't even let her speak normally, Seto holding her in comfort, "Don't say that. It's not your fault."

"It is," she cries. "She– she's only been getting worse. I just don't know how to help. I thought moving was the right option, but she just– she just– she keeps _asking_ things, I keep yelling at her, it just–"

"Mary, it's alright," Seto cooed. Stealing a glance of the shocked Konoha and the awkward but lamenting Haruka and Takane, he goes, "We can just talk about this later, okay? I'll go get her."

"Yes. You go talk to her," amongst sobs, Mary reluctantly nods. "How could I if she hates me?"

"Don't say that. She doesn't hate you," Seto tells her, but doesn't elaborate. Konoha wouldn't know how to elaborate either. Of course Shion doesn't hate her mother, but it's difficult to come up with arguments and convince Mary otherwise. "She's just... you know..."

Seto looks up with a face as he tried to come up with something. He sighs, and gives up on that thought,

"I'll go talk to her," he repeats, with more determination on his face. "You stay here and try to calm down. Don't let her see you like this, okay? It'll only make things messier."

Mary nods again and Seto presses a kiss on her head. She reaches her hand locked with his as he gets away, letting go only when he was too far away to keep holding it. Soon enough, Konoha heard the heavy steps of Seto climbing the stairs.

Everyone sighs.

Auntie Mary blows her nose on her handkerchief, doing her best to calm down and stop crying. Konoha had his dad's arm around his shoulder, and his mom was holding his hand.

Takane's soft voice goes, "Did something happen with Shion?"

At the question, the other woman sighs, rubbing her eyes,

"Something always happens with Shion," Mary holds on her head. "We... we had this huge fight yesterday morning, I just– she keeps... keeps getting in trouble, hitting classmates, stealing books from the library... she, she keeps asking _things_ and..."

Konoha doesn't miss how she tried to mention the red eyes thing subtly since she's unaware of him being... well, Konoha.

"And I'm usually very calm, but it's been going on for _years_ and it just makes me lose my temper so quickly by now," she laments. His parents look at her with understanding faces, nodding, and Konoha looks down. "Not to mention she's gotten worse after we moved. I... I want to give her everything, but she's just so– _difficult._ She keeps rejecting me, I... I don't know what to do."

She covers her face again, her voice going higher when she chokes out again,

"I don't know what to do."

It's silent, and Konoha would like to say something to defend Shion but he's too overwhelmed to even open his mouth right now. He wants to tell Mary that Shion's just an adventurer. She's a reader, she's a writer, she's a creator. She's difficult because she's too wonderful to fit into any category she's offered. She's far too complex, far too intelligent to settle with the norm.

But he stays quiet.

And as he stays quiet, Mary says, "I'm sorry she drags your son into it too."

He was expecting his parents to say there's nothing to be sorry about. That he and Shion are best friends. There's nothing wrong with them being friends, and he's not dragged into anything because Shion always asks, and despite her hard exterior she's a very caring person who never forces him to do anything.

But mom and dad stay quiet. They don't answer her.

When he looks at them, they refuse eye contact as well.

Konoha feels his stomach twisting in itself.

Eventually the sound of steps coming down could be heard too, and they were heavy enought to let them know Seto was coming back. However, much to everyone's relief, they were followed by smaller, slower steps.

Seto steps out of the house and holds the door open for Shion to walk by.

Mary immediately wraps her in a hug. All Shion does is hide her face in her mother's fluffy mane of hair, her arms steady at her sides refusing to hug back despite she clearly wanted to.

Sighing, Seto closed the door of the house and offered Haruka and Takane an apologetic smile, "Sorry about our daughter kidnapping your son."

At this, Konoha finally reacts, "I came because I wanted to."

Shion looks at him with a face that said "shut up, dumbass!". Seto raises an eyebrow, "...She just told me she forced you."

Konoha looks back at his friend in shock, but she immediately looks away with a blush and a frown. He furrows his eyebrows, "Well, she lied. She asked me over a hundred times if I was sure."

There's a pause, in which Mary tried to look at Shion's face to confirm and Seto couldn't help an amused but tired snicker. Haruka also sighs out a chuckle, and Takane pats Konoha in the head, saying, "Well, aren't you two adorable..."

Suddenly, it feels like the mood is a million times lighter.

So much that mommy suddenly says, "Konoha, you're grounded."

The statement takes him so off guard he almost questions why, "Huh!?"

"So, so grounded,," Takane smiles sweetly at him, tucking a strand of hair behind his ear. "For at least a month, we'll see. We'll talk it over in the way home."

"M – maaan..."

"That's what you get for almost killing us," Haruka kisses the top of his head. "It's admirable you won't let Shion-chan take all the blame, but it was still wrong and if you ever do this to us again we definitely won't survive."

Takane nods along with a smile, "Yes. We will die."

"Let us know for how long you'll ground him later," Mary sighs, finally giving a smile as well. "So we'll ground Shion for twice the amount of time."

Shion finally utters a sound, "What! Why!?"

"Even if he was on board you were the mastermind, you little rascal," Seto ruffles her already messy hair. Looking at both his daughter and wife, he gets a more serious tone when he says, "We'll talk when we're home."

Mary rubs the little girl's back as Shion looked down.

Then he claps his hands together, "Now! Let's go pick up Hana because Fuyu-chan is babysitting her. I hope she didn't teach her how to make voodoo dolls."

"Huh? Fuyuha doesn't know how to make those."

"I'm talking about Hana," Seto rubs the back of his head. "She's... into that kind of thing."

"Ah. Well, that duo is a recipe for disaster anyway, so we better hurry up," Takane nods. Both start walking, probably in direction of the vehicles. The rest start walking behind, Mary holding onto the reluctant Shion (who doesn't push her away) and Haruka holding on Konoha, who leaned on him tiredly.

Shion and Konoha silently say goodbye to each other as they get into their respective cars.

She mouths to him, "See you tomorrow at school."

He mouths back, "I look forward to it."

Well, at least her last resolution for the year was accomplished.

**Author's Note:**

> I have an ongoing long fic at the moment (that I've been writing since 2016 and I really want to finish already) but once that's done I'd be interested in perhaps considering... starting one with Konoha and Shion? If anyone else is into the idea please let me know. I hope you enjoy this Next Gen Universe as much as I do.
> 
> You can follow me on Tumblr at winterhat.tumblr.com, in case you want to send me any asks regarding this or any other thing. Thank you so much for reading :)
> 
> (By the way, the book Shion was reading to Konoha is "The Book Thief").


End file.
